


Stones Unturned

by Nopholom



Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 07:06:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8318542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nopholom/pseuds/Nopholom
Summary: Billy opens up to Goodnight about what he left behind.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I needed to try write something happy though this isn't 100% it.
> 
> Set after Take What You Need From Me, and both before and after War Is Never Cheap, Dear.
> 
> Ya boy does requests/prompts.

“I had a family once…” Billy murmured as he fiddled idly with Goody’s cravat,

“You know Billy, I’d taken you for a romantic soul, but your pillow talk could use a little work,” Goody chuckled, looking up at him from where he lay his head on Billy’s chest,

“Could use a pillow too…” they were lying by a campfire, Goody between Billy’s legs, back against his stomach, and Billy lying on their thin bedrolls with a hard pack beneath his head and shoulders.

“I’ll give you that one,” Goody hummed, “Tell me about them?” he asked, genuine curiosity in his voice,

“Not much to tell, it was a long time ago,” he admitted, cheeks colouring as he struggled to remember the faces of his children, of his _wife_ , “I was a different man then,”

“Weren’t we all, once?” Goody noted, “Still, tell me,” he pressed and Billy sighed, he’d brought it up after all.

“It was arranged,” Goody made a noise that suggested he had suspected as such, “our marriage would secure our families’ claim to some land, so our parents arranged it before we’d even met,” Goody seemed enraptured already and Billy realised this was probably the most he’d ever said in their few years together, possibly in his entire time in America.

“Was she beautiful?” Goody asked wistfully,

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Billy sighed, somehow Goody’s prompting was bringing old memories to the forefront and he couldn’t help but smile as he remembered how her cheeks had darkened the first time she called him handsome. She was not a beautiful woman, not conventionally so, not according to his parents and her own, who had apologised for her looks and increased their stipend to compensate for it, but he had been enamoured with her from the first time he had made her laugh.

“Billy, you’re making me jealous,” Goody teased, shifting in Billy’s arms and pushing himself so their heads were almost level,

“You asked,” Billy chuckled, drawing his knees up to brace Goody,

“I did,” Goody acknowledged,

“Do you want…?” he trailed off, meeting Goody’s gaze and watching him nod, so he told him about her, “Her name was Mi Na,” he said, “we married late, in our twenties,” it was almost unthinkable for him to have not married sooner, and he’d never truly understood why he hadn’t, though what he had with Goody was starting to suggest that the fault lay within _him_ , not those who had vied for his attentions, “she couldn’t conceive, not to term, I stayed with her though, despite my parent’s wishes, they insisted I dismiss her or get a…” he trailed off, uncomfortable and uncertain of the word he was looking for,

“A paramour?” Goody supplied, he didn’t sound too enthralled but Billy supposed it was a distaste for his parents, one he shared for their treatment of Mi Na,

“Yes… It was tough,” he admitted, “for her mostly, I just stayed by her side and promised her things would be okay…” he remembered her sobbing as she realised their sweet baby boy hadn’t survived, clinging to her as she beat herself up, not unlike Goody often tended to, swearing he’d stay by her side, that they’d get through this and things would be fine, he didn’t need a son he just needed _her_. “We didn’t try again,” he said, “not until we started to hear rumours about the west,” Goody frowned then, trying to puzzle the rumours out he supposed, “There was work in America, good paying, men were leaving their families, earning real money, sending it home,” he said, though it had turned out to be a lie, he had been shackled in a boat ‘for his own protection’, had been given a new name, worked to the bone, and docked his pay over misdemeanours set up by the foremen who abused him in ways he had once thought Goody wanted to.

“Did she…” Goody’s voice hitched as he spoke and Billy smiled at how oddly caring this Angel of Death had turned out to be,

“We had two daughters,”

“ _two_ ,” Goody breathed, almost sounding _proud_ ,

“A miracle, twins,” he smiled as he thought of them, two beautiful baby girls staring up at him with his own eyes, “Eun-Jung and Soon-Hee,” he sighed, he hadn’t said those names aloud in years, it was almost hard to sound them out, his smile faltered as he heard them crying when he left just over a year after they were born.

 “Thank you Billy,” Goody sighed after silence stretched out between them, “for telling me I mean, you didn’t have to do that,” he elaborated and Billy wrapped his arms tighter around his lover, he had been thinking about telling him for a long time now, he thought he deserved to know but didn’t know how to brace the subject. He supposed that after lovemaking wasn’t the most apt of times to mention that he had a wife, but as the moon reached its peak in the sky above them, he felt like he’d picked right.

“Happy birthday,” he whispered at the sky, wishing somehow his daughters would hear it and smile, knowing that he still thought about them. They would be turning eight today.

 

They celebrated his daughters’ birthday every year after that, it wasn’t anything too huge to begin with, they’d splash out on a meal that didn’t consist of beans and bread, cool off on their extramarital activities, and just quietly speculate what the girls would be like then. One evening, after leaving Billy alone in their inn room during the day, Goody had shown up for dinner with a pair of paper sky lanterns with his daughters’ names and “12” written on them on Korean script.

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to find a Chinese woman who spoke Korean?” Goody quipped as they stepped outside onto the large balcony that rimmed the saloon later on,

“Goody… _I_ speak Korean…” Billy stated as he smoothed his hands down Goody’s chest and fished his tin matchbox from the inside pocket of his wool coat.

“Yeah but it wouldn’t have been a surprise if _you’d_ written it,” Goody purred, leaning against Billy slightly before remembering they weren’t within closed doors anymore, stiffly unfolding the lanterns and handing Soon-Hee to Billy so he could light it. With both lanterns lit and midnight rapidly approaching, they looked up at the sky and let the lanterns fly, disappearing into the stars with their well-wishes to Billy’s children.

“You know, I was expecting someone to shoot them,” he said thoughtfully and Goody slapped his back he was laughing so hard at that, it made him smile even when it hurt his shoulders, “Ok calm down,” Billy chuckled and Goody pulled him tight under his arm,

“Let’s go inside,” he murmured against Billy’s ear, guiding him back into their room, promising to let Billy write the names next year.

He kept that promise every year, even if Billy had to make the lanterns himself out of a newspaper, and as time went on, Billy taught Goody both how to make the lanterns and how to paint the names on them. His lines were shakier sometimes but it didn’t matter to Billy, it was a sweet gesture that other people wouldn’t have bothered with, and watching the lanterns fly brought a look of peace across Goody’s face that Billy only usually saw when they were high.

 

The battle of Rose Creek was a week before their usual celebration would have been, but Billy was recovering from falling off a roof and a brief spiral into alcoholism, he’d had too much on his mind to even remember the date without a paper news source, and Rose Creek was too deep into rebuilding itself to bother with that, never had beforehand anyway. He spent a lot of time sat alone on the porch in front of the saloon, smoking lazily and watching people work; they didn’t fault him for it, nobody seemed to mind if _any_ of the Septet kicked back whilst the townsfolk worked, but it was mostly Billy who slacked. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help, because he _did_ , he’d tried, but his hands were cut deep and his heart weakened at the prospect of scaling a ladder, let alone doing so with a paintbrush and a tin of colour. He could have done what Goody was doing he supposed, entertaining the kids, but he wasn’t a talker and Goody wouldn’t let him in the school house anyway, he never said why, Billy never asked.

He was sat alone smoking one evening when he saw the first one rise into the sky behind the schoolhouse, frowning as a flame flickered within a paper shell; he pushed himself to his feet, keeping his eyes on the sky as he rounded the schoolhouse and saw the townsfolk gathering there, messily painted lanterns in hand and alight.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Goody said as he held out two familiarly marked lanterns, “they asked me a while back if I had any kids,” he shrugged, embarrassed as he let his words sink in; Billy felt a hint of anger well up in him as he realised Goody had told them about his daughters, had told _everyone_ about them, but then something clicked. _He didn’t feel like they were just Billy’s kids_. Goody had never met the girls, likely never would, but he felt just as much a part of their life as Billy dreamt he himself could be, and he shared their celebration with these children when they’d insisted he teach them how to make paper lanterns.

“No…” Billy let out and Goody’s face fell to a look of dismay and _shame_ , “I don’t mind,” he amended and closed the gap between them, cupping his hands under Goody’s where he held the lanterns, his way of saying they should release them together.

They did, the two lanterns sailing into the sky as they always did, though this time they were followed by dozens more, he couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate his daughters turning 18 than a sky full of birthday wishes from the townsfolk of Rose Creek.


End file.
